Cultivating Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Interculturally-Laden Tasks: A Qualitative Inquiry.

Adopting a qualitative design, the current study explored the usefulness of interculturally-laden tasks and intercultural training in improving the Iranian English learners’ intercultural competency in Anzali, Guilan province, Iran. To this objective, a group of 25 intermediate levels whose ages ranged from 21 to 30 participated in the study. The participants were required, initially, to complete seven intercultural tasks to assess their current level of intercultural competence. Then, they attended in eighteen sessions of intercultural training using Mirror and Window: an intercultural textbook and then completed the same seven intercultural tasks one again at the end of the course. Anchored in Byram’s (1997) ICC theory, five components of the learners’ ICC enhancement, namely Savoir Comprendre, Savoire Etre, Savoire S’engager, Savoirs, and Savoire Apprendre / Faire were investigated throughout an intercultural training course. Two major sources of data were intercultural tasks, which were written by the participants per week as part of their assignments, focused-group interviews and self-report evaluation survey conducted at the end of the course to elicit the views they harbor toward the course. Drawing on the qualitative content analysis, findings indicated that interculturally-laden tasks could help the participants enhance their intercultural competence. Meanwhile, the analysis of the focused-group interviews and self-report evaluation survey revealed that learners evaluated most aspects of the tasks and textbook positively. Finally, the implications of the current study and suggestions for further research were discussed.